The Short Commentary on the Tantra of Twenty-one Homages to Tārā called “The Treasure Vase of

Benefit and Happiness”

by Thupten Shedrub Gyatso.

The Invincible Fearless Lady

8

Introduction

Benefits

namas ture mahâghore māra-vīra-vināśini |

bhṛkuṭī-kṛta-vaktrābja-sarva-śatru-niṣūdini ||

namaḥ (n/V) – adoration, homage; ture (f/V) – quick, willing, prompt; mahā – great, very, most; ghore (V) – venerable, awful, sublime; māra (m) – a being who tempts men to indulge in their passions; vīra (m) – hero; vināśini – [ifc:] destroying; bhṛkuṭī – contracting the brows; kṛta – (well) done; vaktrābja (m) – lotus face; sarva – all; śatru (m) – enemy, foe; niṣūdini – slaying, killing.

Homage to TURE, the great terrifying lady,

Who defeats the champions of demons.

Your frowning lotus face

Slays all foes without exception.

The eighth homage is to the dark red frowning lady, Zhen Megyalvai Palmo,^Tib the “Invincible Fearless Lady”. We praise the lady who averts criticism and other harms, which are the source of humiliation caused by our afflictive emotion of pride. Her hand implement is a vajra¹. By reciting the mantra TURE, which means “Swift Lady”, another of her names declaiming her swift compassionate action, she arises in wrathful form from the tranquil dharmadhātu, and subjugates the demons difficult to tame: the afflictions, the aggregates, the lord of death, and the māras².

She transforms her blossoming lotus-like peaceful face into a wrathful, scowling face, and destroys the evil mind of outer enemies. She eliminates those who hate and abuse the dharma and its upholders, those who cause obstacles for practitioners, and those who harm sentient beings. In reality, she executes all foes without a trace: the afflictive obscurations that are the foes of liberation, and the knowable obscurations that are the foes of omniscience. The definitive meaning is that the base of the wrathful male and female deities, (the serving faculties) are the pure abiding nature of the four attributes of body, and the four classes of illusory conceptions. They eliminate the foes of omniscience: the knowable obscurations, and the foes of liberation: the obscuration of afflictive emotions.